Israeli authorities claimed on Thursday the arrest of a Hamas cell that planned to assassinate an Israeli military officer in retaliation for the murder of al-Qassam Brigades commander Mazen Fuqaha.

Israeli Channel 2 reported that a joint operation between the Shin Bet and Israeli police led to the arrest of seven Palestinians from the town of Jaljulia in 1948 Occupied Palestine for planning to carry out anti-occupation attacks against Israelis.

The channel alleged that one of the individuals, Mahmoud Daoud, was privy to a plan by brothers Adam and Faras Faki to assassinate an Israeli army officer in revenge for the assassination of Fuqaha who was shot dead on March 24 near his house in Gaza City. Hamas held Israel responsible for his killing.

According to the investigation, Adam Faki was recruited by his brother Muhammad during a family wedding in the Gaza Strip, and took part in military training in the coastal enclave, the channel pointed out.

Ministry of Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip announced the arrest of 45 agents working for Israel and disclosed details of the assassination of Mazen Fuqaha, commander of al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry revealed that its members started a large-scale security campaign after the assassination of Fuqaha.

Deputy Interior Minister, Tawfiq Abu Naim, said that the investigation into the murder revealed that Israel stands behind the crime through three of its agents. The three agents confessed and admitted receiving orders directly from Israel to carry out the assassination, Abu Naim added.

“The investigation showed that planning the assassination process took 8 months and that Israel used agents backed up with drones and followed up by Israeli intelligence officers”, he said.

Abu Naim also disclosed that security forces in Gaza arrested the direct perpetrator (called A.L. and aged 38). He admitted working for Israeli security apparatuses. Two other spies (aged 42 and 38 years old) acknowledged that they had major roles in the assassination process including monitoring, following up and photographing the murder site.

The three agents were also involved in previous crimes that led to killing of citizens and shelling of different buildings in Gaza, Abu Naim pointed out.

The press conference presented videos showing how the crime was implemented and recorded confessions of the three arrested agents who assassinated Fuqaha in mid March before his home, south of Gaza city.

Ministry of Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip announced on Monday evening its intention to hold a press conference, calling it important, at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in order to reveal details of the assassination crime of Mazen Fuqaha.

According to the spokesman of the ministry, Iyyad al-Bezem, the conference will be held in Commodore Hotel west of Gaza city.

The Permanent Military Court in Gaza started on Monday the trial of the killers of Fuqaha, commander of al- Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement. He was killed in mid March before his home south of Gaza city.

The Hamas movement, on Thursday, said that it has arrested the assassin of one of its top military chiefs, Mazen Fuqaha. The announcement came during a conference in Gaza today, by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyyeh.

“Everyone knows Israel wants to harm Hamas… we’ve stopped the assassin who pulled the trigger following the instructions of his Israeli commanders,” Haniyyeh said, according to the PNN.

Fuqaha, a senior member of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was gunned down on March 24 in the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. The first suspect of the attack was Israel.

Israel had sentenced Fuqaha to life in prison, plus an additional 50 years, for allegedly planning a suicide bombing on a bus in northern Israel in 2002, which killed nine Israelis. But, in 2011, he was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haneyya has said that the killers of martyr Mazen Fuqaha will never escape retribution from Allah first, and then from the Palestinian people and their resistance sooner or later.

Haneyya made his remarks in a speech during a ceremony held on Saturday for the inauguration of the “Captive Movement Monument” as part of activities to be organized on the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoner Day.

He affirmed that the resistance leadership would never be intimidated by assassinations or weakened by captivity and blockade, stressing that the resistance would back up the security authorities in Gaza in its open battle with the Israeli occupation.

Martyr Fuqaha, a senior commander of al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, was murdered last week outside the apartment building he lived in in Gaza city.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, accused Israel of being behind his assassination and vowed to respond strongly to the crime.

Israel is trying to mislead the ongoing investigations by spreading fabricated news related to Fuqaha’s assassination, he said.

Israel is the top suspect in his murder, according to his statements.

Haneyya also warned of quoting Hebrew media in this matter especially in social media.

Last Friday, al-Qassam leader Mazen Fuqaha was found dead near his house in Tel al-Hawa, south of Gaza.

Local sources said they believed Fuqaha was hit with a gun to which a sound suppressor is attached.

38-year-old Fuqaha was among over 1,000 Palestinians released from Israeli jails six years ago following the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner swap deal struck with Hamas in exchange for the Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

Without using drones, and without leaving clear fingerprints, the Israeli Mossad assassinated one of the leaders of Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, sending a number of messages to the Palestinian resistance inside and outside Palestine, that it has the audacity to reach anyone without drawing attention.

Freed prisoner Mazin Fuqaha, from the West Bank city of Tubas, has been living in the Gaza Strip after he was released in the Wafa’a al-Ahrar prisoners swap deal in 2011, was gunned down upon returning to his home in a building to the west of Gaza city.

The assassination was carried out by gunmen who used silencers, firing six bullets at Fuqaha’s torso, and then fled the crime scene. Hamas announced the death of one of its military leaders, pointing fingers at Israel and vowing revenge.

Mossad fingerprints

The clear marks of Mossad in the use of guns fitted with silencers to murder martyr Fuqaha reminds us of what happened to Tunisian martyr Mohamed Zawari in 2016 and what happened to three Palestinian resistance leaders in Beirut in 1974.

Major General and military analyst Wasif Iriqat confirms that the method, time, place and tools used to target Fuqaha stresses the fact that Mossad carried out the assassination and that Israel is trying to carry out successful assassinations using silencers to save itself much criticism.

He told the PIC reporter, “Israel wants guaranteed assassinations because warplanes bring international criticism, and they could harm civilians. Therefore, silencers are better at a time Israel is engaged in enhancing its relationships with Arab countries.”

The assassination is dangerous to a great extent as it brought the presence of the occupation back on the ground, shooting at its target directly. This requires Palestinian resistance to tighten its security to avoid penetration after years of weak performance of Israeli spies in the Gaza Strip.

General and military analyst Yousef Sharqawi said the fact that the assassination took place using silencers, reveals that there is a determination and a well-prepared plan that carries the patterns of Mossad, which reminds of previous assassinations against Palestinian resistance in Lebanon.

He told the PIC, “They usually use silencers, where one operative shoots and the other readily waits in case the first fails to do so. Israel wants to mix all cards, and it might have found the suitable excuses to carry out the operation after some home-made projectiles were fired at it recently.”

Significance and Goals

There is no doubt that Israel, by assassinating Fuqaha in Gaza, started a new phase in its conflict with the Palestinian resistance after the reputation of its army has been damaged and the various criticisms presented by the report of the State Comptroller over the 2014 Gaza war, and the differences within the security, military and political establishments.

Analyst Iriqat said Israel, by assassinating Fuqaha, was affirming its concept that the entire land of Palestine is accessible by it, and that it has, in addition to its long aerial arm, a long Mossad arm.

Iriqat opined that Israeli was trying to restore its security glory that deteriorated in the last few years in the wake of disagreements between its political leaders and the security and military establishments, which was mentioned by the State Comptroller report of 2016-2017.

He added, “The assassination carries a threatening message to all mainly that our hand can reach anyone.”

As shown in the most recent phase in the battle between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation, Israel tried to assert its deterrence.

Analyst Sharqawi opined that resistance should not be content with voicing threats and should respond to this assassination, or else it would provide the occupation with the audacity to carry out more aggressions and assassinations.

The Islamic Bloc at An-Najah University in Nablus called on the students and teaching staff to join a ceremony to mourn the Qassam leader Mazen Fuqaha.

Absentee funeral prayers (Salat al-Gha’ib) are expected to be performed upon slain al-Fuqaha at 12:30 p.m. on Monday at the main square of the old campus.

The Islamic Bloc attributed the move to Palestinians’ profound reverence for Fuqaha, who studied at An-Najah University and served as an Islamic Bloc leader at the campus.

Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman in Gaza Iyad al-Bazm said Fuqaha was directly shot and killed in Tel al-Hawa, south of Gaza.

Local sources said they believed Fuqaha was hit with a gun to which a sound suppressor is attached.

38-year-old Fuqaha was among over 1,000 Palestinians released from Israeli jails six years ago following the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner swap deal struck with Hamas in exchange for the Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

Mohjat al-Quds Foundation said on Sunday that tension escalated in the Negev prison after the Palestinian prisoners organized a ceremony in mourning for martyr Mazen Fuqaha, an ex-prisoner.

In a letter sent to Mohjat al-Quds, the prisoners said that the prison administration forcibly ended the ceremony and prevented them from doing any activity against the assassination of Fuqaha.

The administration also put the Islamic Jihad prisoner Abdullah Tayeh in addition to three Hamas prisoners, whose names were not disclosed, in solitary confinement, according to Mohjat al-Quds.

The administration ordered the transfer of the prisoners of section 5, which includes prisoners affiliated with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, to section 22. However, the prisoners refused warning that the situation might escalate and direct confrontations with the prison forces might ensue.

Massive crowds in Gaza city on Saturday laid to rest the Qassam Brigades commander Mazen Fuqaha who was murdered by unknown gunmen in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood south of Gaza city.

Nahed Aseeda, wife of martyr Mazen Fuqaha, called on Sunday on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which she considered one indivisible unit, to respond to her husband's assassination.

During a conference about the Palestinian women at the Islamic University in Gaza on Sunday, Aseeda asked the security services in Gaza to track down the murderers of her husband, expressing concern that Fuqaha's assassination might be the first of many to come.

Aseeda affirmed that she will raise her children following the same path of her husband, pointing out that she used to be proud for being a wife of a freed prisoner, and now she is even more proud for being a wife of a martyr.

She added, "I am going to continue my life and get a master's degree so that Mazen will be happy."

Aseeda talked about her husband's love for Gaza and his pride for being expelled to it, explaining that this attachment was manifested through the Safad operation which he planned in retaliation for assassinating the Gaza-based al-Qassam Brigades commander Salah Shehade.

The Palestinian security forces in the blockaded Gaza Strip closed off on Sunday the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing following Israel’s assassination of ex-prisoner Mazen Fuqaha.

Speaking with PIC, Interior Ministry spokesperson Iyad al-Bazm said the ministry decided to close the Beit Hanoun border-crossing until further notice as part of a set of security measures opted for following the murder of Fuqaha.

Hundreds took part in Fuqaha’s funeral procession at noontime Saturday in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Fuqaha was fatally gunned down by anonymous assailants on Friday evening in Tel al-Hawa, south of Gaza.

Palestinian youth activists launched calls for mass participation in rallies set to be held Sunday afternoon in protest at Israel’s murder of Mazen Fuqaha in Gaza.

The popular events are slated to kick off outside al-Bireh Grand Mosque in Ramallah following afternoon prayers.

The campaigners vowed that Israel’s murder of Fuqaha, among other anti-occupation protesters and fighters, shall never go unheeded and that the Palestinians will take vengeance for such heinous crimes.

Palestinian citizens in the West Bank City of Tubas have called for swiftly taking revenge for the assassination of Mazen Fuqaha, a commander of al-Qassam Brigades, in the Gaza Strip on Friday.

This came during a march called for by Palestinian factions in Tubas, the native city of the martyr, and organized following the noon prayer on Saturday.

Scores of citizens and representatives of factions participated in the march, chanting slogans condemning the occupation and demanding retaliation to Israel’s murder of Fuqaha.

Upon their arrival at the mourning house in the city, the martyr’s father welcomed the participants in the march and gave a short speech praising the sacrifices made by the Palestinian young men for their national cause.

The mourners were also able to watch the funeral of martyr Fuqaha broadcast live on television from the Gaza Strip.

Tens of thousands of citizens and resistance fighters on Saturday afternoon marched in the funeral procession of Fuqaha, who was assassinated on Friday evening in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, south of Gaza City.